Police: Mom shows up drunk for court date, baby in tow

SANFORD J. SCHMIDT The Telegraph

January 10, 2014

EDWARDSVILLE — Deputies arrested a 19-year-old mother Friday on a charge of unlawful consumption of alcohol by a minor after she allegedly brought her baby to the Madison County Criminal Justice Center while under the influence.

Charged was Terisha B. Wallace, 19, who has a history of arrests on alcohol charges and two felony charges. The charge lodged Friday is a misdemeanor.

Deputies at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office placed her under arrest as she arrived at the courthouse. An officer said Wallace’s mother called to inform them Wallace had been drinking the night before and was possibly still under the influence.

Wallace, who has addresses listed in Collinsville and Granite City, submitted to a breath-analysis test at the security station at the center and registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 percent, an officer said.

She was placed in a holding area and was allowed to call her brother to come and get her child, seven months old.

The brother submitted to a breath-analysis test, which he passed, and was allowed to take custody of the baby. Wallace was later transferred to the Madison County Jail.

Even though Wallace showed up at the center on Friday, her court date was not actually until Monday.

She pleaded guilty April 11, 2012, to a charge of burglary and was placed on two years’ probation. The court date was in connection with her probation status and with an aggravated battery charge.

Authorities had petitioned in June 2012 to revoke her probation on the burglary charge because she was accused on June 3 of aggravated battery for allegedly kicking and punching a victim in the head.

Wallace was also convicted in 2009 of a misdemeanor charge of unlawful consumption of liquor by a minor.

Wallace’s mother filed a petition for an order of protection against her daughter the day before the suspect showed up at the center allegedly under the influence.

The mother, Cheri Grant, filed on behalf of herself and the baby.

The petition stated Wallace works at the Wise Guys Show Club in Washington Park. Grant claimed to be the one who is taking care of the child and that Wallace drives under the influence with the baby in the car.

“I’m scared that (the baby) will wind up dead in her car,” Grant said in her petition.